GENDER AND SMOKING-RELATED RISK OF LUNG-CANCER

Our aim was to compare risk of lung cancer associated with smoking by gender and histologic type. A total of 30,874 subjects, 44% women, fro m three prospective population-based studies with initial examinations between 1964 and 1992 were followed until 1994 through the National C ancer Registry. There were 867 cases of lung cancer, 203 among women a nd 664 among men. Rates among female and male never smokers were simil ar, although confidence intervals around rates were wide. Rate ratios (RRs) increased with number of pack-years for both men and women to a maximum of approximately 20 in inhaling smokers with more than 60 pack -years of tobacco exposure. RRs did not differ much between men and wo men: adjusted for pack-years, age, and study population, the ratio bet ween female and male smokers' RRs of developing lung cancer was 0.8 (9 5% confidence interval = 0.3-2.1). All histologic tires were associate d with smoking, with the largest RR seen for squamous cell carcinoma a nd anaplastic carcinoma. This prospective population-based study does not con firm previous reports from case control studies of a higher re lative risk in women than in men for lung cancer associated with smoki ng.